Editing Stir-up Sunday (section)

==History and etymology==
{{more citations needed|section|date=November 2024}}

The term ''stir-up Sunday'' comes from the [[incipit|opening words]] of the [[collect]] for the day in the ''[[Book of Common Prayer#1549|1549 Book of Common Prayer]]'' and later (a translation of the [[Roman Missal]]'s collect {{lang|la|"Excita, quæsumus"}} used on the last Sunday before Advent):
{{Verse translation|lang=la|
Excita, quæsumus, Domine, tuorum fidelium voluntates: ut divini operis fructum propensius exsequentes, pietatis tuæ remedia maiora percipiant: Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
|
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.}}

In the [[Book of Common Prayer#1662|Book of Common Prayer]] and later editions, this collect is listed for "The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Trinity", with a [[rubric]] specifying that this collect "shall always be used upon the Sunday next before Advent". This reinforced the significance of this day as forming part of the preparation for the season of Advent. The rubric is necessary because the last Sunday before Advent does not always fall on the 25th Sunday after [[Trinity Sunday]]. Trinity Sunday is a [[moveable feast]] and the [[Advent]] season is fixed, so the number of weeks in between varies from year to year. Thus, this collect was always read just before Advent – as it in the ([[Tridentine Mass|pre-reform]]) Roman Missal whence it came (where the Sunday is called the "24th Sunday after Pentecost", but the Sundays left out after Epiphany are "caught-up" between the 23rd and the 24th, making it always the last before Advent).

Since most recipes for Christmas pudding call for the pudding to be kept for several weeks to mature, the day subsequently became connected, in countries which used the [[Book of Common Prayer]], with the preparation of [[Christmas pudding]]s in readiness for [[Christmas]].<ref>{{cite news | title= Home-made Christmas puddings die out |author= Gary Cleland |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1570379/Home-made-Christmas-puddings-die-out.html |newspaper= The Telegraph |date=  24 November 2007 |accessdate=30 December 2010}}</ref>

In recent years{{as of when|date=November 2024}} most provinces of the [[Anglican Communion]] have adopted the practice of the Roman [[Catholic Church]] in observing this Sunday as [[Feast of Christ the King|Christ the King]] (sometimes under the name "The Reign of Christ").{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} Popular attachment to the "Stir up" collect has, however, caused it to be retained (in contemporary language) in the liturgies of several provinces. The [[Church of England]]'s "[[Common Worship]]" uses it as the [[Post-Communion]] prayer, with a rubric stating that it "may be used as the Collect at Morning and Evening Prayer during this week".

In the [[Personal Ordinariate|Catholic Ordinariates for former Anglicans]], [[Divine Worship: The Missal]] appoints the "stir up" collect for use on any of the weekdays between the [[Feast of Christ the King|Solemnity of Christ the King]] which are not themselves Feasts or Obligatory Memorials.  The collect thus functions as the collect for the Sunday Next Before Advent, even though the Sunday with that title is now a liturgical fiction, always being impeded by the higher ranking [[Feast of Christ the King|Solemnity of Christ the King]]. However, the fictional Sunday nonetheless provides the real collect for the following weekdays, as in other weeks in the calendar where a Sunday is occasionally impeded by a higher ranking Feast. The collect thus continues to be used the week before Advent.

In addition, one of the two choices in [[Divine Worship: The Missal]] for the collect for the Second Sunday in Advent begins with the words, "Stir up our hearts, O Lord." The other collect option on the Second Sunday in Advent is the more famous "Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" collect. However, another collect featuring the phrase "stir up" within the Advent season is the collect for Ember Friday in Advent, which in the [[Personal Ordinariate|Ordinariates]] occurs on the Friday in the first week of Advent, beginning "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power."

In the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in the [[United States]], the collect designated for the Third Sunday of Advent in the Book of Common Prayer (1979) commences with the invocation, "stir up your power, O Lord." Consequently, within numerous Episcopal congregations, the Third Sunday of Advent, commonly known as [[Gaudete Sunday]], is referred to as "Stir-up Sunday." [[Marion J. Hatchett]] in his definitive work "Commentary on the American Prayer Book," notes that in the Pre-Reformation English [[Sarum Rite]], the collects for four of the last five Sundays preceding Christmas commenced with the words {{lang|la|excita}}, or 'stir up'. A comparable collect to the one appointed in the Book of Common Prayer 1979 is found in the recent book authorized for use in the Church of England, "Common Worship," designated for the Second Sunday of Advent; however, in this version, the phrase "raise up" is employed instead.